Agricultural Production in Latin America

Ismael Cruz

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

Agriculture is one of the main productive activity in Latin America, which accounts the 4.5% of the region's GDP and until 2018 with 22% of total exports. In this thesis, agricultural production in Latin America was contrasted with variables related to the economic value of its production and the use of resources in favor of world food. The research is based on population data, land use, main agricultural products, economic value and the impact on the environment. Because of the research, it was found that Latin America is one of the most important food producers in the world, reaching an export value in 2018 of around 219 billion dollars and with ambitious goals to expand their production by 2030. The analysis of this thesis is extended to see the impacts; agriculture has on the ecological system and the environment. In this segment, the results are not very encouraging, since the environmental impact generated by agricultural production obtained very negative results, such as the 6% reduction in forest areas from 1990 to 2016 and the increase of bulk of greenhouse gases. It has demonstrated that agricultural production in the region is diverse and complex, resulting from the traditions of each country, and is obtained at the cost of a partial ecological destruction and reduction of the rural population, which was reduced 10% in the period 1990-2018. Despite the environmental impact in Latin America, it is important to mention that the common interest of the region is to maintain its role as one of the largest food producers on the planet. The need to reconcile the nutrition of the inhabitants of the Earth and preservation of the environment was discussed as a pending task for the social actors linked to agricultural production.

Keywords

Trade, GDP, Market, Latin America, Exports, Imports, Environment, Land, Agriculture, Crops, Hectare, Rural, Livestock, Greenhouse, Population

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 15. 3. 2021

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Jiří Mach, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Economics and Management

Bachelor programme / field:
Economics and Management / Economics and Management